1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to power supply circuits, and particularly to a capacitor-less LED drive.
2. Description of the Related Art
Light emitting diodes (LEDs) are beginning to experience widespread use in many lighting applications. LED lighting is replacing the florescent lighting because of its advantages, mainly low power consumption and long life expectancy. However, commercial LED drive circuits limit the life expectancy of the LED lighting system by around one-fifth of the lifetime of the LED itself. The main source of shortening the lifetime of the drive is the smoothing capacitor. This is due to the leakage in this capacitor and, hence, degradation in the drive circuit with time. Several works on electrolytic capacitor-less LED drives have been presented to maximize the overall lifetime of the LED system. However, most of the works presented require relatively complicated power circuit or current-controlled technique to reduce the size of the energy storage capacitor.
Thus, a capacitor-less LED drive solving the aforementioned problems is desired.